The Bible As History

The Bible as History

The question of whether the Holy Bible is an actual historical account of what happened since the beginning of humanity, or merely stories that man has come up with over time has long been considered. Many choose to believe the Bible literally and take everything word for word. Others believe the stories in the Bible are a way of showing

God’s love for us, but think of them as stories and lessons on how to follow the “way of

God.” Others think the stories in the Bible are false, and have no basis in truth at all.

Some people want to have a clear picture of what early Palestine was like without ever having reference to the Bible, and “this may be an equally one-sided approach as using the

Bible [as] complete factual history” (Porter 16). More and more archaeological digs are uncovering tangible evidence that some of the stories in the Bible actually do have a factual basis. Most people are still undecided, as there hasn’t been much evidence found supporting that either side of the argument has a strong lead over the other. “Previous generations of scholars often linked archaeology very directly with the Bible: they spoke of ‘Biblical Archaeology’ and saw it as a means of establishing the credibility of the

Scripture” (Porter 16). The Bible is a historical account, in some areas, because there is proof. In other aspects, however, the Bible may turn out to be just stories.

Archaeologists undergo many excavations in the Palestinian area, because this is where most of the stories in the Bible took place. Many books and inscriptions have been uncovered providing information on events and people both Israelite and Non-Israelite alike (Porter 16). Several buildings, pottery, tools, and weapons have revealed what the daily life of the Palestinians may have been like. Archaeology has also confirmed many of the sites referred to in the Bible (Porter 17). Even though there have been various excavations of possessions of the Israelites, most of these are not from the setting of early

Israel. Most civilizations have records of how they developed, and in this case, the

Hebrew Bible is the only account of the Israelite civilization (Porter 17).

In addition to the remains of ancient civilizations, the digs have earthed agricultural...

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...ble evidence is found either supporting or conflicting with it. It is hard to believe that an idea this large and developed is just an idea, but that will continue to be many’s belief until proof is found leading them to believe otherwise.

Throughout history many people have thought that either the Bible is the absolute

Truth, or that science contains all the answers. In combining the two sources, there will be more answers to questions, and there will not be so many arguments over history.

According to science, many parts of the Bible have been proven as true. There are many other parts, however, that have no indication of either being true or false. This is not to say that these events never took place, because we are not sure yet if they did or not. We will never know everything about the Bible; there will always be an unanswered question, because we will never know if future generations find evidence to contradict previous

Truths.

Works Cited

Porter, J.R. The Illustrated Guide to the Bible. New York: Oxford University Press,

1995.

Sheler, Jeffrey L. “Is the Bible True?” US News and World Report. 25 Oct. ‘99: 50-9